Two Questions For Sabbath and Why I Took One

I’ve read it too many times to count. You probably have, too.

Somehow in college that was easier for me. More black and white. A sacrifice for sure, but easy to recognize what God wanted me to do when I got the nudge to trust Him with my Monday classes by not studying on Sunday. Somewhere between my freshman and junior years (I don’t remember when), I felt the nudge to give up my true geek on Sunday and rest from the normal. I had to study more on Saturdays. But always, God honored the sacrifice.

The work I do now, however, is not so easily discernible. Mommy stuff. Writing. Keeping up with Facebook. And Twitter. Learning German. Working on Tribe Writers assignments. (Did I tell you I’m taking an online writing course with Jeff Goins? Love it.) Not so black and white. Because I love the writing. And the Mommy stuff is kind of my life right now. And facebook, well, isn’t that a kind of rest? And I have to learn German. I live in Germany.

And yet, heading into yesterday, I felt the old conviction to rest from the usual. Take a break from the normal life.

So I took a break from email. And writing. And facebook and twitter.

Oh, I had all kinds of arguments against it. What about the encouragement I wanted to send to a friend today? Does that count as normal? And the facebook page for Graffiti, an ebook I get to help launch (it’s awesome! By Alene Snodgrass. I’ll tell you more very soon! Check it out here.)? There’s a lot going on right now, and it would be bad for me to miss any of it.

But when I realized the true questions at hand, and then answered them, I knew absolutely what I needed to do.

Don’t you think God can take care of it, since He’s the One asking you to give it up?

I had to go deep to answer this one honestly. Because somewhere in the last few months of this journey, I started trusting my work more than the hand of the One Who has given it to me. I have grown dangerously close to the kind of self-preservation that keeps me focused on my accomplishments and endeavors. But the truth is, I want quiet-hearted humility that stands firmly focused on God’s ways not my own.

To take an entire day’s rest from all things writing and networking, well that required the kind of submissive trust in God that I have been lacking. The kind I need if I am ever going to be truly successful as He defines success.

Why would you not take a day to rest?

God Himself took one. And all He had to do was speak. Let there be light. Let dry ground appear. Let us make man . . . ” (See Gen. 1.) God used the spoken Word to create life itself. All of Creation. And when He was done, He took a whole entire day, and He rested from His work. How can I not need the same? And how could I possibly not be able to step away from my work for just 24 short hours? Am I better at this work thing than God?I answered the questions. Then I took a step of faith. And I let myself rest from the normal pull of the laptop. I found refreshment in time with my family, no just sitting next to them. And this morning when I opened my computer, I was actually able to think straight to respond and deal with each email.

What about you? Do you practice a Sabbath rest of some sort? What’s difficult about it? Let’s chat. Leave a comment (click the bubble next the title up there at the top). Or click this to send me an email.